Skype a Scientist Delivers Advanced Connections

Recently, students in Upper School Science teacher Bridget Lesinski’s classes had the opportunity to connect with scientists across the globe, thanks to the nonprofit charity Skype a Scientist. This organization aims “to build trust in science in the public to get our society back on course for a more evidence-based decision-making public. We believe that opening channels of communication with the public is the first step to achieving this goal.” Believing in this goal and realizing the value of having her students engage directly with individuals who have a wealth of real-world experience, Lesinski led her classes in a series of virtual visits and joined more than 32,000 classrooms that have participated in this program.

 

Parker sends a special thanks to Dr. Kimberly Dill-McFarland, Dr. Jesse Lopez and Dr. Hossam Tashkandi for visiting with the Advanced Biology classes and Dr. Shona Duguid for visiting with the Mind and Brain science elective.

 

An excerpt from a reflection by freshman Marian Cozma makes clear the impact of these visits on our students. “To sum it all up, I really found it interesting when she mentioned that cells are machines within machines. This made me think about how maybe our galaxy or Earth is a cell, and we’re all the mini machines within machines doing all the work and making things function. Maybe the universe is a whole organism and our galaxy is just a part of the organism. This is a crazy thing to think about and is probably (most definitely) wrong, but I love thinking about these crazy concepts and thinking about how small we actually are. Overall, the meeting with Dr. Lopez created these amazing concepts in my mind about not only how life works, but how our entire universe could possibly work.”

Click on the scientist’s name below to read more student reflections.

 

Parker believes in cultivating courageous citizens who are dedicated leaders “on behalf of our democratic society and wider world.” Lesinski aligning with Skype a Scientist was a perfect match.

 

Advanced Biology

 

Mind and Brain elective